Around a decade ago, everyone was in a frenzy about carbon footprints, and in 2007, the word locavore* became Oxford Word of the Year, entering the Oxford New American Dictionary. But with carbon footprint of travel being largely a myth (as studies show that most carbon emissions come from the production process, not the transportation afterwards), what are the real virtues of eating locally?

Recently, I was at the café of Rosendals Trädgård in Stockholm, a beautiful edible garden with greenhouses on a garden island in the middle of the city. When I arrived, I was initially shocked to find that the salad greens in the sandwiches were from the Netherlands, rather than from their own gardens. However, when you consider that I had just walked through slushy snow and past an iced-over river to get there, it’s clear that this was not their growing season. To force a crop to grow out of season would only have added to the gas or electricity bill and contributed to the unnecessary use of our already critically limited resources.

It’s not that locavorism is complete nonsense. In some regions, particularly those with a mild climate, fertile land and proximity to oceans and rivers (such as Hong Kong), the locavore concept can work. Not only would we be eating well and from diverse sources, but we’d also be contributing to the local economy. 

In addition, chefs around the world, in regions with year-round growing seasons or not, are actively utilising the limitations on local produce to drive their creativity. Noma in Copenhagen famously uses year-old carrots that have been kept underground through the winter season, which intensifies their sweetness, and at Faviken in Jarpen, the middle of Sweden, the local protein, reindeer, is used in their dashi (whereas the Japanese would use seaweed), as well as for the pastry shell of their blood and cod roe tartlettes.

Forcing a locavore-only diet can therefore be an over-simplification of a complex issue. Although it has proved be a source of inspiration, a lot more thought is required than just eating within a certain mileage from one’s hometown. In the words of the renowned early 20th Century American writer, Henry Louis Mencken, "There is always a well-known solution to every human problem — neat, plausible, and wrong.”

^{*A noun, defined in the Oxford New American Dictionary as "a person whose diet consists only or principally of locally grown or produced food."}